A former, troubled Major League Baseball player returns home to confront his abusive step-father.
Baseball can a difficult subject to make cinematically entertaining. The most winning formula seems to be a very comedic broad approach, like “Bull Durham,” “Major League” and the quintessential “A League of Their Own.” While I enjoy these light-hearted movies, I much prefer the tone and story in “Moneyball.” “Moneyball” equally captured the business end and the entertaining sports spectacle to a well rounded somewhat meaningful movie. “90 Feet from Home” scraps all those themes for a disappointingly morbid baseball movie, where nobody plays the damn game at all.
“90 Feet From Home” focuses on Scotty, a gifted teenage baseball player with a promising future. His high school teacher, played by the always welcome Eric Roberts, notices he’s been abnormally bruised and invites Scotty’s parents in to confront them. The culprit is his alcoholic abusive step-father with a mouthful of chewing tobacco and a gruff voice. The role is filled by Shawn Michaels (yes the wrestler) who I must admit does a pretty decent job. Scotty returns home fifteen years later to either make amends or get even. His brother Tommy is now a cop and his dialogue is very annoying. Tommy is constantly asking if he’s hungry or offering him food or just being a shitty brother who can’t empathize with Scotty since he wasn’t similarly abused.
The former WWE Wrestler isn’t the only interesting or perplexing casting choice, I was thrilled to see Steven Michael Quezada (“Breaking Bad”) and almost did a spit take when I saw the big dope Dean Cain with a face full of tears.
I can appreciate what the movie is going for, holding men accountable, reckoning with the past before it reckons with you, but it’s all cold and flat. In some films, there’s a rawness captured where actors can just let loose and the camera keeps rolling. With “90 Feet From Home” it’s like its director didn’t care about any urgency or natural pacing. Although I must admit the lighting and cinematography are pretty great, it’s very nice to look at. There’s not much of a score but anytime it appears it’s more of a tool to manipulate the audience and not very memorable. The setting of a mundane Texan town is perfectly captured. Overall, I think the story needed a couple of rewrites, and an editor to chop down the very long running time, I was ready for the 7th inning stretch very early on.
In theaters June 1st
